The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

Middle East protests have gone too far

Middle+East+protests+have+gone+too+far

Many of us have heard about the protests in the Middle East, which in reality is a global issue as it has encompassed 30 nations so far.

Whether it is through reading about attacks on embassies or watching videos of furious mobs going wild, the protests in many parts of the Middle East have become violent, ugly and just flat out unacceptable.

The violence started around this year’s anniversary of 9/11 with the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya. Four Americans were killed and the United States’ embassy and flag was burned. “Senseless” and totally “unacceptable” as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it in a press conference regarding the tragedies.

The protests were sparked from outrage over a short film. More attacks since, have been done on other places such as western brand stores. In Lebanon protesters attacked American food chains.

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The worst was in Pakistan, where as usual the smallest of things spark the utmost intolerance and inappropriateness.

Protesting in Pakistan can be summarized as such, “I am upset with another country, and so let me burn my own country.” Is it only me?

The protesting in Pakistan has resulted in countless cars and shops being burned. All just because the protestors were “outraged”?  The car and shop owners were just ordinary citizens like them who had nothing to do with the film. In reality, they probably never even heard about the film. I feel remorse for those people who lost their shops. Do the protestors even realize that they burned someone’s livelihood? So many families have lost their whole businesses. Someone must have worked for years to be able to save up to open his own business, and within minutes, gone.

Not to mention how many have died because of protesting. There obviously is some education problem, if people are willing to take other people’s lives over a 14 minute movie trailer. But the worst of all and most unacceptable, in Pakistan, was the attacks and arsonary on religious places.

Many churches and Hindu Temples were plundered and burnt, all over Pakistan. Religious books destroyed. But let’s look at the bigger picture. These churches and Temples were community centers; many of them included schools. Living as minorities, Christians and Hindus focus and stay united through these holy places, which serve as a unifying center for the communities.

By destroying the religious center, the radicals caused many communities to lose what was most important to them. These religious places were built long before, and many communities can’t afford to rebuild proper worship facilities.

Again, just because someone only said something about their religion, actually physically inflicted problems on other religious communities is not justified.

They were not American. No, they were Pakistani citizens living peacefully. They probably also never heard about the films. Now, in which religion is such a thing acceptable?

Though the film is inappropriate, we live in a civilized country that allows freedom of speech. I understand that many of the nations in the Middle East are run by harsh, dictatorial figures who control what is released from their country, so many people assume that the U.S. “allowed” for the offensive film to be released.

People need to understand that just because one person says something does not mean the whole nation believes it. It is unacceptable to disrespect a country’s flag and embassy just because of one person’s radical beliefs. But I have the utmost respect for the many Muslims, who though were offended, did not go out and burn houses, cars, religious places or even threaten to behead the director of the film. Instead, they moved on with their lives.

In reality, at one point or another everyone will get offended by what someone has to say. It’s normal, as well as important to remember that all institutions have radicals.

So that should not affect our behavior with anyone because of their beliefs. At the end of the day, “If everyone took an eye for an eye, the whole world would be blind.”

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Middle East protests have gone too far